Former ATO head joins clean energy body

A former head of the ATO has been appointed to the regulator overseeing Labor's carbon price regime. Source: AAP

A FORMER head of the taxation office has been appointed to the regulator overseeing Labor's carbon price regime.

Michael D'Ascenzo will join the Clean Energy Regulator from April, after ending a six-year stint at the helm of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in late 2012.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said Mr D'Ascenzo brings a wealth of public sector experience to the role.

The regulator is the government body responsible for administering the carbon pricing mechanism, but also runs the carbon farming initiative and monitors greenhouse gas emissions from corporations.

It also oversees the renewable energy target scheme, which aims for 20 per cent of Australia's electricity to come from clean energy by 2020.

Mr D'Ascenzo is currently a member of the Foreign Investment Review Board and is also an adviser with the International Monetary Fund.

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Punishment increased for former AWB exec

A FORMER AWB executive has had his punishment increased for his role in the Iraqi kickbacks scandal.

Former AWB chief financial officer Paul Ingleby was last year fined $10,000 and banned from managing a corporation for four-and-a-half months for his role in Iraqi wheat deals.

But the Victorian Court of Appeal allowed an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) appeal on his sentence on Tuesday.

Mr Ingleby must now pay a $40,000 fine and is disqualified from managing a corporation for 15 months.

Appeal judge Justice Mark Weinberg said the new penalty more accurately reflected the nature of Mr Ingleby's offending.

"A penalty of that order more clearly reflects Mr Ingleby's culpability in this disgraceful enterprise," he said.

Mr Ingleby breached his duties between December 2001 and September 2004 when AWB paid the Iraqi government bribes for wheat deals, the Victorian Supreme Court heard last year.

Mr Ingleby co-authorised payments to trucking company Alia, which channelled bribes disguised as "inland transportation fees" to Saddam Hussein's government to secure lucrative deals.

Mr Ingleby and ASIC had agreed on a negotiated penalty of a $40,000 fine and a 15-month disqualification period, but that was overruled by trial judge Justice Ross Robson.

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